


Laying Paths

by lunarpaddle



Category: Batman (Comics), Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) (2020), Harley Quinn (Comics)
Genre: (also that way i get to maybe do stephcass), F/F, Post-Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn), and they became amazing morally grey gay mums, except with a large helping of angst between here and there, pretty standard what if harley ran back into ivy after bop, set during the bit where bruce is dead because i said so
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-15
Updated: 2021-02-22
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:36:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,693
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27573914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lunarpaddle/pseuds/lunarpaddle
Summary: Okay, so it isn’t that she’s lookin’ for Pam. Not, like – she’d asked her not to come find her again, and Harley was damn well gonna respect that. She coulda looked before – pulled some strings, asked the right people and shit, but she didn’t.So she isn’t lookin’. But –But she’s pretty sure Pam ain’t in Gotham.---A year or so after Birds of Prey, Harley realises that ever since Ivy...left, there's been nobody keeping Gotham green, and it's probably up to her now - even if she has to balance it with looking after a teenager, even if she has to work with the bats (who aren't so bad, actually, especially without Bruce around), and even if it ends up leading her right back to the person who told her never to come looking for her.After all, it's what Pam would want, right?
Relationships: Pamela Isley/Harleen Quinzel
Comments: 14
Kudos: 140





	1. Chapter 1

“They took you out on patrol?” Harley screeches.

“It was fine! I totally like, beat up a few guys, and it was really cool –“

“You – Jesus fuckin’ Christ, how did this even happen? You’re tellin’ me Montoya was good with this?”

“I can take care of myself!” Cassie yells.

“You’re avoiding the question, sweetheart,” Harley shoots back.

“I – “ Cassie opens and closes her mouth for a few seconds before deflating. “She wasn’t there. On a date.”

“Oh, shit, are her and Kate finally getting it on?”

“Yeah! It was really cute, she showed up at the apartment with flowers and stuff all suave and – “ 

Cass cuts herself off as she realises that she’s supposed to be angry, and Harley sighs.

“Look, kid, I know you can take care of yourself, I’ve made damn well sure of it, but – I’m just not lookin’ for you to get anymore traumatised than y’already are, right? And like, I’m not just saying that as some shitty adult who doesn’t get it – I’m saying it as someone who cares a whole lot about you, and was right there with you through all that shit, and also as, y’know, a trained mental health professional?” Harley earns an eye-roll for that, but it’s true.

“Yeah, I know, it’s just – I dunno, I wanna help.”

Harley can’t help but smile. How the hell did she end up with such a good kid?

“I appreciate that darlin’, and you know I’m happy for you to hang out with those guys, help out with their research and whatever, train with them – but until you’re a bit older keep it to that shit, okay? Or like, I dunno, you could go volunteer at some soup kitchen I guess – “ She’s cut off by Cass giggling, and breathes out a sigh of relief – this whole parenting shit is hard, especially when it’s this unconventional. (Then again, she’s pretty unconventional, and maybe that makes her better suited for it.)  
“Yeah, I get it. I’m sorry.”

Harley pulls her into a hug.

“Oh, by the way,” Cass adds after finally pushing Harley off of her, “Montoya thinks there might be somethin’ dodgy about the guys trying to get that old power plant down in the East End back up and runnin’ – I know it’s not really our kinda thing, but –“

“Wait, the old Brown plant?”

\---

Okay, so it isn’t that she’s _lookin’_ for Pam. Not, like – she’d asked her not to come find her again, and Harley was damn well gonna respect that. She coulda looked before – pulled some strings, asked the right people and shit, but she didn’t.

So she isn’t lookin’. But – 

But she’s pretty sure Pam ain’t in Gotham. Like, she hadn’t been looking, but she hadn’t been turnin’ a blind eye, and – no newspaper articles ‘bout her, no word on the block she was plannin’ something, no nothing. And the old Brown plant – Ivy’d stopped that place being turned back on fuck knows how many times, slaughtering her way through whichever rich assholes had decided they wanted to wriggle and/or bribe their way around pollution restrictions and knock everyone in the surroundin’ areas chances of cancer up a few percent.

(Yeah, so she knows some shit about this – she’d listened to Ivy about this stuff, she ain’t a jerk, and she had a fuckin’ PhD even if it weren’t in this field. She could navigate her way ‘round some science-y shit.)

Point being, if Ivy ain’t in town, and they’re pullin’ this shit again, who’s gonna stop ‘em? So she’s not lookin’, she’s just… checking. Specifically, checking out Arkham – Harley wouldn’t know shit if she were there, but she’d still damn well bust out on the day of the event and sort things out if she were.

He is also in Arkham right now, but – that’s fine. Sure, there’s that voice in the back of her head still, whisperin’ to go find Mistah J, but there’s a louder voice in the front of her head sayin’ she has a fucking kid to look after, and she ain’t gonna be some dead-beat mom, and can you imagine the look on her face if you left? 

So, it’s fine. She don’t even need to break in, not for real – Brian’ll know anyone important that’s in right now, and he knows things are easier if he just talks. Hardly the worst thing she’s asked him to do. S’ probably public record, even, but hell if she can bothered to go crawlin’ around some library.

\---

“So, she wasn’t in there?” Dinah asks.

“Nah,” Harley replies, “So I’m like, pretty sure she’s outta town completely. Which means…”

“Someone else has to deal with the plant,” Renee says, sitting down at the table with them. “I can start looking for leads – anything that might give us a way to get the place shut down, evidence of bribery, whatever. Oracle might help, she’s been working with us recently.”

“Not gonna ask Katey for a hand, detective?” Harley teases, earning an eye roll and a barely noticeable blush from Montoya.

“Why don’t we just kill the people in charge of it?” Helena asks. “That’s what this Ivy person used to do, right? Seems easier.” Privately, Harley agrees, but – 

“Helena,” Dinah groans, putting her head in her hands. “That’s not how we operate.”

“And besides, the bats would be on us like nobody’s business,” Renee adds. “You know how they are about killing. Don’t wanna go getting on their bad sides, not when they’re just coming round to us.”

“’Comin’ round to us’” Harley repeats, turning to Dinah and Helena. “That’s one way to put it, right girls?”

They both snort, and Renee’s eyes narrow.

“Is that how it’s gonna be? Because don’t think for a fucking second that I haven’t seen the way you’ve been looking at a certain other redhead, Lance.” Dinah’s eyes widen, and Helena turns to her with a look of surprise on her face.

“Oh, are you into Barbara? That’s cool, we could totally like, work something out – I’ve been looking at some things online, and – “

“Not the time, babes,” Dinah cuts her off, turning back to Harley. “We’ll look into it, alright? I promise, we’ll find some way or other to get it sorted.”

Harley agrees, and they finish their meal, but inside her head gears are turning.

The Birds might not wanna get on ol’ Bats’ bad side, but – well she already was, right?

\---

So… it hadn’t been her best plan. Not even in the region of her best plan, really, but that was less on her and more on the situation. 

She’d left Cassie with the Birds for the night, said she was gonna work on the case, which – well, it weren’t a lie. The plan, really, had been very brilliant in some ways – she’d looked up blueprints, remembered ‘bout some old tunnels in the area, come up with a whole infiltration setup. Problem was, there was some pretty major money involved here, and there inevitably came a point where she had to fight through a whole bunch’a folks to get things sorted.

It’d never been a problem for Ives. Superpowers an’ all. 

Harley… did not have superpowers. And a highly defended power plant during an opening night event with several of the piggiest rich assholes to ever pig around in attendance weren’t the same as a police station in the back-end of Gotham.

So, yeah, there had been some flaws in her plan. But here she is! Livin’ it up in the main office of the jerk wad in charge, flippin’ through files like nobody’s business. The guy ain’t quite dead, yet – never kill a guy before you’re sure you ain’t gonna need his passwords, right? – but she’s pretty sure she’s got it all worked out. Plenty of dirt here to sink this place this time ‘round, and the guy’s body hangin’ from the rafters ought to keep others like him away for a while.

And, yeah, alright, she has a bit of a bullet hole in the side of her… um, side. And she’s feelin’ a bit faint. And there’s a whole lot of bangin’ from the other side of the door, and it looks like it ain’t gonna hold much longer but – but really, she’s done a pretty good job, all considered.

She just gotta… right, so, the screen’s a bit blurry, but she – did she already put those files on the USB?

She looks, and there ain’t a USB plugged into the thing, so she’s gonna guess no.

“You’re hurt, Harley.”

Harley looks up to see the shadowy, ever-ominous figure of the Batman. Great.

“Hey, Bats! Don’t mind me, I just gotta, uh – well, probably gotta dash now, huh?”

He looks down at the unconscious man on the floor, then up to the wound on her side.

“You need medical treatment, Harley. This isn’t – I thought you were done with this. The Birds seem to think you’re on our side, now. What are you even hoping to gain, here?”

Harley is barely holding herself up now – pushing against the desk, trying to keep her eyes focused.

“This? I’m – I’m playin’ hero, Bats. These are the bad guys, right? Tryna fuck up the city. I don’t – someone’s gotta do it.” That gets her a cocked head from Batman, a few moments of silence.

“Someone has to – where’s Ivy? This would usually be her scene – you’re doing this because she’s not here?”

Harley collapses back into the chair behind her. Fuckin’ – fuckin’ Batman and his whole, detective bullshit, fuckin’ –

“Shit – Harley, look, I think you’re losing a lot of blood. You need to let me take you to get help.”

“Help?” She snorts. “Since when’re you gonna take me to get help, Bats? Last I checked you were usually the one layin’ on the pain.” She takes a second to analyse exits, possible routes, anything she could use to distract him. Sure, she’s pretty outta it, but she thinks she could muster up one last burst of cohesiveness – smack him ‘round the head with the chair, sprint for the window – she’d probably make it out and away, she knew her shit, she’d gotten out of worse – 

“I’m – “ Batman stares down at the ground for a second, before looking back up at her. “Screw this. Harley, it’s me.” And the cowl comes off, and underneath it’s – 

“Dickie?” She asks, fuzzy and faint. “Shit, you’re – you’re all grown up, huh? Last time I saw ya you was just – just a…”

Fuck. Cass.

She could make it out, maybe. ‘Specially if it were Dickie under the cowl – he always went easy on her. Pass out in a ditch somewhere, wait till whatever the fuck was mixed up and flowin’ through her veins by this point got her back up and running.

But what would Cass think?

“Shit,” she says, barely a whisper. “Fine. Fuckin’ –“


	2. Chapter 2

“I’m sorry, Harley.” Pam’s voice is so – it’s so fuckin’ – 

Fuck, she can’t even say shit. Pam’s voice is lovely. Always is.

“You know how this ends. You have to. You stay on your path of self-destruction, and I – “

“Stay on your ‘path of destruction’” Harley replies. She’s cryin’, a little bit, but she tries to hide it. For Pam’s sake.

“Yeah. I can’t – I can’t keep doing it here though. Not when it’s just, this, over and over. Every time I have to watch you leave Harls, I swear – “

“I know. It breaks ya heart.” Tryin’ real, real hard to hide those tears – better to focus on that than on, on bags an’ tickets and all this mundane, bog-standard shit that was tearin’ her life away from her.

“Every time, Harley,” Pam says, and her voice breaks, and when Harley looks up she realises that neither of them are doing a very good job of hiding their tears at all. “And every time, I get a little bit less – I stop wanting to protect things, and I just want to burn it all down. That’s not who I want to be, not anymore.”

Harley can’t help but smile through the tears.

“The therapist in me says that sounds pretty healthy, Ives. Not much like a path a’ destruction after all.” 

Ivy just stares at her, fists clenched, eyes glowin’ a little. She was always real pretty when they did that.

“You – you could always just mind control me, y’know. I know ya made me immune to all your planty stuff, but you could take it away, right? Plant one of those world-changin’ kisses on me, whisk me away to – “

“Harley,” Ivy interrupts, and fuck does the expression on her face hurt. “You – god, you know I’d never do that. I can’t fucking believe you’d ask.”

Harley stares back down at the floor, slumps her shoulders.

“I – I know, Red. I’m sorry.”

The apartment – their apartment, kinda – is silent. Eventually, there’s shuffling, movement, a door clicking open – Harley can’t fuckin’ bring herself to look up, to watch her leave – and then her voice, one last time.

“Please don’t come looking for me, Harls. I love you. I hope things get better, some day.”

The door clicks shut.

Not for the first time, something in Harley snaps.

\---

_Eight years later_

"What were you fucking _thinking_ , Harley?" That's - she's pretty sure that's Renee's voice? Great, she was gettin' interrogated by a cop (sorta) before she even got the chance to wake up properly. Typical.

"I - " Harley groans as she tries to open her eyes, harsh light flooding in. "Y'know what I was thinking, Montoya."

"You were thinkin' with your fucking pussy is what you were - "

"I think," Dinah interrupts, "what you weren't thinking about is more important here." Harley winces.

"She here?" she asks, looking around. She's in - some kinda old fashioned looking room, all gothic arches and shit, converted into a medical room. Definitely a Bat hideout. There's some doctor lady she vaguely recognises in the corner talking to Dickie, and the birds are gathered around her bed.

"She's here. Been hanging out with Babs' kid whilst we waited. She was real worried, Harls." says Dinah.

"Wait - fuck, Dickie, did you and B-G get yourself a kid? That's - shit, that's not the point, huh. Do you - does someone wanna go ask if she wants t'see me?"

"Quite frankly," says the doctor lady as Dickie recovers from a coughing fit, "I'm not entirely inclined to let you see her. You understand how close you came to dying here, right? Honestly, I'm not sure how you _didn't_ die."

"Fuckin' please," Harley spits out, anger flush in her chest, "This coming from the fuckin' Bat-Doctor? So what, puttin' your life in danger is only responsible parenting if you bring the kid along?" 

Dickie snorts out a laugh at that.

"Believe me, Leslie's given Bruce plenty of shit for that. You've got a point, though - I'll go grab Cass."

The room falls into silence as he leaves.

"I know," she says after a minute, "I know it was stupid. But it really is important, guys, it's - Ivy wasn't like me, she did shit for a reason, and - "

"We know, Harls." Dinah says, putting a hand on her shoulder.

"For what it's worth," Helena bends down to whisper in her ear, "I'm mostly mad that you didn't just invite me along. Stupid to try a job like that without backup."

\---

Cass hasn't let go of her since she came in. It would be touching, if she also hadn't been staring angrily at her since she came in.

(It's still pretty touching.)

"Trust me," she says, squeezing Cass's hand, "I'm not gonna try somethin' like that again. I - I just forgot 'bout me, is all, too caught up in the plan." She gives the room the widest grin she can without it hurting, but it don't look like they're reassured - Dickie and Babs, especially, give eachother unsettled looks. She knows what they're thinking - 'bout how she never used to be allowed to plan for her own safety, 'bout how Mistah J always made it clear she was an - an acceptable sacrifice. She can't blame them - it's what she's thinkin' too.

"So, what now?" Renee asks.

"Dick brought back the laptop," Babs says, "But I couldn't get anything damning off of it. Top-end corporate encryption, can't do shit if you don't have the passwords."

Harley fuckin' _knew_ she'd need the passwords.

"I mean, do we even need to do anything? They're backing off the plant at least." Renee says.

"They'll be back," Harley says, propping herself up with a wince. "An' even if they aren't, assholes like that got a thousand other folks they're screwin' over. It's - gotta pull a weed out by the roots, Ives always said. Else it'll just grow back."

The room falls into silence for a moment.

"My, uh, my dad hated Poison Ivy," says Steph - not Dickie's kid apparently, but kinda Babs' kid ('Like Cass is only kind of your kid' she'd said, which had made Harley laugh - Cass was absolutely her kid). "They ran into eachother once, an' apparently she strung him up by his ankles - said he was a 'pathetic villain wannabe with no real purpose'. Always thought she was kinda cool, after that."

Harley lets out a peal of laughter, ignoring the pain in her chest. 

"Fuck, that - that sounds like Ives, alright. Who's your dad anyway - wait, no, lemme guess... Kite-Man?" That gets a laugh from a good portion of the room - thank fuck, the tension was startin' to get kinda unberable.

"No," Steph says laughing, "I think he an' Dad were friends, though, crappy D-List Villains club or something. I'm, uh, Cluemaster's kid." Steph replies, shoulders hunching a bit towards the end.

"Huh," she says, feeling Cass's hand tense in hers. "Well, he always seemed like a piece a' shit. Seems to me you're Batgirl's kid these days, though." Steph smiles at that, and Harley catches Cassie givin' her a grateful look out of the corner of her eye. She privately sent a thanks up to - fuck, the greek gods were actually real right? Up to Zeus or some shit, that Cass'd finally made a friend her own age. 

\---

There was a plan, sort of, vaguely. Babs hadn't been able to find anythin' that could really take these guys down - these guys being 'Herman Power Inc.' apparently. Who the fuck was Herman? Since when was anyone 'sides Luthor or like, the league maybe, behind this kinda thing? Anyway, the plan was to hit their headquarters - quietly, this time - and see if they could find any paper records or anythin'. Only problem was their headquarters were up in the big apple, which meant - 

"Road Trip!" Cass squealed, drawing excited noises from Steph too. Damn did she pick a good kid. 

"No, no, hold up - " Babs groans.

"Road Trip!" Dickie cheers, leaping into the air.

"How did you ever date that," Dinah drawls as she looks over at Babs.

" _Road Trip!_ " Helena exclaims as she walks into the room, giving Dickie a high-five.

"Much as I'd like to get in on the excitement," Harley says as Babs gives Dinah a frankly impressive evil grin, "I don't think I'm goin' anywhere, least till tomorrow."

"Tomorrow? You're not going anywhere for longer than that, Harley, you got fucking shot! Multiple times!" Montoya says, glaring over at her.

"I heal quick!" she replies, crossing her arms in a huff. "An' you sure as fuckin' hell aren't going without me. S'like - this is like my mission now! My newly superheroic heart won't rest until the wretched villains behind this are in _chains_ \- "

"We leave tomorrow," says Dick, "Just me and Harley - I'll make sure she doesn't do anything too strenuous."

"But -" Steph starts.

"Nope," Babs interjects. "You and Cass are staying here with me - the Birds can help looking after you both."

"But -" Cass says.

"I'll teach you how to shoot a crossbow," Helena says, and both the kids' heads shoot up immediately. Harley snorts. 

"Don't worry," Dinah says to Babs as her face goes pale, "I've had loads of practice deflecting crossbow bolts with my scream by now, I'll protect you."

"How did this become my life," Renee says, face dropping into her hands.


	3. Chapter 3

It’s surprising, how much you can get done remotely when you put your mind to it. 

It was the internet that did it, of course - you could ruin someone’s life from miles away these days without even seeing their face – but you didn’t even have to be particularly computer-savvy to get in on it. A few google searches, a few leads, a few assholes beaten up in back alleys – everything just left so much more of a trail these days, and you could find out who’d been causing problems without ever having to set foot on the scene of the crime.

She was grateful. She didn’t – she’d really rather not go back to Gotham any time soon, but she still felt a certain obligation to protect it. Not that it was entirely necessary apparently – someone or other had crashed the opening event for the plant in style, fucking up a few ‘investors’ as she went – enough to get the place shut back down for now, but Ivy liked to think bigger picture these days.

Hence – Herman Power Incorporated. Their ‘headquarters’ weren’t much – a few offices in a building full of offices – but that was the kind of scummy shit this type liked to pull. Hard to find, hard to trace – you weren’t even really supposed to know companies like this existed, not with how many other companies they were hidden behind, layer after layer of obfuscation. 

Ivy was good at cutting through the weeds, though – right to the source. The office wasn’t much, but there’d be enough in these offices – emails, notes, bills – to get her what she _needed_ \- names, roles, addresses –

“I always hated buildings like this. More Red Robin’s area, really – never did get used to all the corporate mess.”

That voice was familiar, but more importantly it shouldn’t _be_ here – nobody should be here, especially not someone whose voice she would recognise.

“I mean it’s just files, files, files – what am I supposed to do with files, y’know? There’s only so much material when it comes to office spaces, but you always end up spending so _long_ in them –“

Shit, she definitely knew that voice. Annoyingly cheerful, name-dropping bats, never stops going on about his comedy bits – what the fuck was a grown up Robin doing here? This far from Gotham? Whatever the reason, it was clearly going to be a –

“Oh come on Harley, I said I was sorry, you don’t have to sulk.”

Fuck. What? _Fuck._

“Look, I get it, obviously you can stay quiet long enough to break into a building, you’re a professional criminal – “

“I ain’t!” Harley says – that voice, that voice she will never ever forget. She can’t even move, hearing it. “I’m like, a hero now, and shit!”

“Harley you literally nearly killed a man trying to steal his files, what, 5 days ago?” 5 days – that was Harley? That was – 

She doesn’t know if she wants to throw up, or cry, or burst into hysterical laughter, but she really should be trying to avoid all of the above – 

“5 days is a long time! I’m a changed woman, Dickie, you know – shit, what’s this?” 

Ivy looked down at her feet to see the tendrils of green that had silently spread out from her, burrowing into the walls and sliding under the doorways. That – that wasn’t good either. She needed to run, needed to get out of here, but she couldn’t move –

(Part of her didn’t want to move. Part of her couldn’t bear the thought of not getting to keep hearing that _voice_ \- )

“Oh. You don’t think… ?” 

“I – Nah, she ain’t here. Wouldn’ta had ta pull all that shit back in Gotham if she knew it was going down.”

Fuck. She could put the pieces together here – the wonder team weren’t exactly making it hard for her – but they wouldn’t fit in her head, no matter how hard she tried.

Harley was here. Harley was looking into the Herman guys too. Harley had taken care of the Plant back in Gotham. Harley was working with a _Bat_ , so she wasn’t doing it for personal gain, and she also probably wasn’t doing it for the Joker. Harley was _here_.

Her mind is so busy swirling, spiralling, collapsing, that she doesn’t hear the door open till it’s too late, doesn’t move at all except to look up into blue eyes, red lips, a face she never thought she’d see again – 

She’s crying. Harley, that is, though now Ivy thinks about it her own cheeks felt wet. Harley looks so different, and somehow exactly the same, and – 

“Y’know,” Harley says, cracking voice betraying the smile she’s trying to force onto her face, “This is like, totally an inappropriate first thing to say after not seeing you for – fuck, for too many years – but the new hair is really hot. The whole butch thing suits you.”

“What,” Ivy finally gets out, “the ever. Living. Fuck.”

\---

Harley had left. Something about space, and respecting wishes, and – fuck, Ivy didn’t know. Everything was still a bit of a blur.

“So you’re helping Harley investigate the situation in a – a non-villainous, totally ethical way.”

“Yup.”

“And she – you guys had no idea I’d be here?”

“Nope.”

“And Harley’s just – what, cool with doing this your way?”

“I mean,” Robin – Nightwing, now, apparently – says, “She tried it more your way, first. Nearly got her killed, though, and she’s pretty eager not to abandon the kid – “

“The kid?!” Ivy exclaims, vision going red. “That fucking – I swear to god, I’m going to find that pathetic piece of shit and – “

“No, fuck, not like that!” Dick says, stepping back nervously from the writhing roots that had started to push up around her. “She hasn’t had anything to do with him in ages. It’s just some street kid she ended up looking after – the Birds know more about it than I do, you’d have to ask them for the full story.”

“Oh,” she says, letting herself breathe again. “So she just – randomly adopted some orphan kid?” That didn’t seem like Harley – or, it did, but – 

It seemed like her Harley. But that was far, far too much to hope for.

“Yeah,” Nightwing chuckles, “I guess that’s a bit of a thing in Gotham, huh.”

“Right.” 

The air goes silent, for a while. They’re out by what is apparently Harley’s car now – it certainly looks ostentatious enough, although Ivy somehow doubts it was her car originally – and the breeze is whistling through the trees of the parking lot as first light slowly spills out across the sky.

“Look,” Nightwing says, eventually. “We really didn’t know you were here, alright. If you want to get in on this, work together to take these guys down, you’re more than welcome to – but if you just want to get the fuck away from this, I’d understand. Harley would too, I think. You don’t have to worry about the Plant – between me, Harley, and the whole flock of other bats working the case we’ll get it sorted.”

Ivy doesn’t know what to think. What to say. How is she supposed to make a decision like this just, on the spot? Whether to come back to Gotham, whether to see Harley again, whether to go back to all of this – it took her months to make that decision before, and everything’s _changed_ now, all the pros and cons thrown into a blender and messed up – 

( _”Sometimes you just gotta leap, darlin’”_ she remembers Harley saying, so long ago it barely even feels real anymore. And it really seems like things are different now, and she really does want to make sure that fucking plant doesn’t re-open.)

( _Don’t make the same mistakes again,_ a small part of her whispers. _You know where this goes._ )

( _Maybe the real mistake was leaving at all,_ says an even smaller part, sick and inflamed. _Maybe all this time, you were wrong._ )

“Fuck it,” Ivy says. “Just for this case. Just for this.”


End file.
